The forgotten issue in most discussions and debates about labor law is the issue of personal liberty and autonomy. The point of labor law should not be to help unions win representation elections they would otherwise lose, but to give employees the option of choosing between bargaining individually or bargaining collectively. In a free society, certainly the law should be at least as diligent in preserving individual rights as it is in creating "collective rights."

Union attempts to expand collectivization and coercion at the expense of individual liberty are not only fundamentally wrong, they go against the grain of the developing law that is striving to protect individual employee rights. The labor movement must instead begin to focus its efforts on the principles of freedom, voluntarism, and value to employees. The primary goals of our national labor policy in the next decade must be government neutrality, the preservation of a free collective bargaining system, and employee freedom of choice. In such an atmosphere, unions must abandon the old way of doing things in order to stay relevant in the twenty-first century.

For Americans to retain their standard of living and competitive advantage in the markets of the future, management and labor must be free to resolve their disputes through an open exchange of policies and ideas, without the intervention of government in favor of either side. It is time for policy makers and citizens to rededicate themselves to the true meaning and philosophy of the First Amendment by embracing the ideal of people freely exchanging ideas and persuading, not coercing, others to accept their goals.

For Americans to retain their standard of living and competitive advantage in the markets of the future, management and labor must be free to resolve their disputes through an open exchange of policies and ideas, without the intervention of government in favor of either side.